Jan 12 the valley house: update and main colour palette

hello all! happy new year! 12 days later, but hey we are still pretty fresh into it. i hope everyone's christmas and new year was wonderful. we had an amazing first christmas with our little man.

so it's been a while since i have given any updates on the house, and well, that is because we've been busy finalizing our blueprint! we wanted to make sure we didn't miss a single detail. i've never been apart of something like this, and to be honest, i really underestimated the time and detail for this stage, but it's arguably the most important. we can change the aesthetics of the home, but we're not going to build a new home, and renovate where walls and windows are in 5 years, so we want to get it right now, and enjoy later. i really have to say kimberley homes has been so amazing to us over these past three months, especially our new home expert, amie. the amount of questions she's answered, revisions she has made, and details she's covered are endless. i have sometimes felt like a nuisance and she has always reassured me that she's here to help. we are beyond thankful to have her on our side; thanks amie!! to top it off, we really love the process of building a home with kimberley. when we signed off on our new build, we were given a detailed schedule of the stages in our build (the first one being nailing down the blueprint - of course in my own words ;). i appreciate the time we have been given during this stage, and that we have been able to focus on one thing. speaking with others, we know that some builders out there have your plan and interior selections all done at the same time, which in my opinion would be so overwhelming. like anything in life, if you take on too much at one time, something will inevitably fall through the cracks. with that said, we are officially now moving on to stage two, one more big meeting with the crew at kimberley then it's selection time people!! now this is where the excitement comes in for me. all the hours spent studying the smallest of details, looking for inspiration from my favourite designers - one of the top being studio mcgee, and honing in on my colour palette all have brought me to this point. we are ready! well, i am, bradley just goes, yup, looks good to me. what a trooper he has been - maybe i should give a special shout out to the man while i am on the topic, happy 6th (dating) anniversary my love!

so now that i have successfully babbled away (sorry guys!) i wanted to share with you a simple colour board for the entire home. perhaps a tad boring to some, but what all of the design surrounds itself around, the foundation if you will. the only thing we haven't quite decided on is the tile - colour and shape, for the laundry/mudroom, half bathroom, and two upstairs bathrooms. keep in mind, these examples of flooring aren't the exact selection, just what we are using as a guide for when we go to pick everything out.

so, of course, we went very neutral! my pops of colour (still neutral, ha!) will come with area rugs, fabrics, and live and faux greenery throughout the home.

paint colour

for the walls, we are going white, everything! i love white as a base colour for the home, it brightens the home, opens up any space, and can easily adapt with ever changing styles and colours that trend through the years. rather than trying to have our doors and trim go with our wall colour, i'm just having it all painted the same. it's easier and there won't be a break in the colours. although i have never used this particular colour, based on hours of research and looking at photos, i know it is absolutely the right choice. this colour reads as crisp, clean and neutral. our home is an open concept with an open to below living room; using this white, will be bright, but not too stark in the large open space. once we are in the space, i will add feature walls, maybe some wall paper, but for now, this is the base, and i could not be more excited.

flooring

a really exciting choice we made was to have hardwood on our main and second level of our home! i've never been a huge fan of carpet so having the option to do hardwood on our second level seemed like a no brainer. hardwood is classic, durable and adds that extra wow factor to any space (and cleaner imo) although the cost is higher in the beginning, it will even out in the end. in our experience, carpets get worn easily and therefore needs to be replaced, and often. and to think of hendrik, and any other children making a mess on our carpet, and our dog, made this decision too easy.

as for the carpet, some may wonder why we chose carpet for the staircase, and here is why. one, the cost (the biggest reason). hardwood stairs are very labour intensive which drive up the cost, it just wasn't in the budget for us! two, all the people we spoke to and research we did, told us that hardwood floor stairs are slippery for all (children, adults, animals) and you'll most likely end up covering them with a runner. so it was easy to make the decision to do carpet given the aforementioned; save the cost and any accidents from happening. the carpet style i'm looking for is a loop pile. why loop piles are great? they are more durable, and given that staircases are high traffic areas, this is important. i also want our carpet to mimic the style that a stair carpet runner would be, which is a loop pile. we are really happy to have gone this route!

the colours we have chosen for both are light, neutral and warm! given that we are doing a dark kitchen (see the post here!) we wanted to keep everything else light. the warmth the wood will add is just what this palette needs to keep you feeling cozy.

interior doors/hardware and windows

we went for a timeless shaker style door, two panelled. this is a classic look, and can really mix with any style of decor; rustic, scandinavian, contemporary, ect. our home will pull from a lot of styles, and when done right, it can be really rewarding to go this route, you'll see ;) we mixed this door with a matte black lever. the base of the lever is round and this will help break up all the straight lines throughout and add of bit of a classic feel to our home. the matte black levers will also tie in the black framed windows throughout. you can read about deciding to go this route here.

well friends, that was a bit long! if you made it all the way to this point, thanks for reading! happy friday all, xoxo.